Directing visceral white adipocyte precursors to a thermogenic adipocyte fate improves insulin sensitivity in obese mice

• DOI: 10.7554/elife.27669
• Publication Date: 2017-07-19T12:00:28Z
• Authors: Chelsea Hepler; Mengle Shao; Jonathan Y Xia; Alexandra L Ghaben; Mackenzie J Pearson; Lavanya Vishvanath; Ankit X Sharma; Thomas S Morley; William L Holland; Rana K Gupta
• Keywords: PRDM16; Intra-Abdominal Fat

Visceral adiposity confers significant risk for developing metabolic disease in obesity whereas preferential expansion of subcutaneous white adipose tissue (WAT) appears protective. Unlike WAT, visceral WAT is resistant to adopting a protective thermogenic phenotype characterized by the accumulation Ucp1 + beige/BRITE adipocytes (termed ‘browning’). In this study, we investigated physiological consequences browning murine selective genetic ablation Zfp423 , transcriptional suppressor adipocyte program. deletion fetal precursors ( l oxP/loxP ; Wt1-Cre ), or adult Pdgfrb rtTA TRE-Cre; results beige-like within multiple depots. Thermogenic improves cold tolerance and prevents reverses insulin resistance obesity. These data indicate that beneficial can be engineered directing fate, suggest novel strategy combat